Myanmar

In late July, cyclone Komen caused major flooding in large parts of Myanmar. It was the worst natural disaster in the country since cyclone Nargis in 2008. MSF responded in Rakhine state and Sagaing region, both declared disaster zones by the president.

In Kalay and Tamu townships in Sagaing, and Minbya and Maungdaw townships in Rakhine, MSF teams distributed water and hygiene kits to reduce the risk of sanitation-related illnesses, and bed nets to prevent mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue fever, which are endemic in these areas. In Monywa, Kalay and Tamu, MSF trained Ministry of Health staff and volunteers to clean up potential mosquito breeding sites such as flower pots and open water vessels with stagnant water, and provided door-to-door health advice on preventing dengue. Dengue rapid tests were donated to the Ministry of Health, whose staff was trained on how to use them. Teams also ran mobile health clinics with the Ministry of Health in the main shelters, which included monasteries, mosques, a high school and an orphanage.

Providing healthcare in Rakhine state

MSF continued consolidating the activities that had been stopped by the authorities for nine months during 2014. These included supporting the Ministry of Health’s mobile clinics that visited camps for internally displaced people in Pauktaw and Sittwe, and in ethnic Rakhine villages, as well as medical activities in Maungdaw, in the north of the state. In total, the teams conducted 84,689 outpatient consultations, supported vaccination campaigns for measles and polio and provided over 900 referrals to secondary health facilities. Access to healthcare remained unacceptably limited for many people in northern Rakhine, due to the severe restrictions on movement imposed on the Rohingyas, and the stark absence of other national and international humanitarian organisations.